The interrelationship of integrable equations, differential geometry and the geometry of their associated surfaces

Paul Bracken

Published 2009-03-05, updated 2009-09-22Version 3

A survey of some recent and important results which have to do with integrable equations and their relationship with the theory of surfaces is given. Some new results are also presented. The concept of the moving frame is examined, and it is used in several subjects, which are discussed. Structure equations are introduced in terms of differential forms. Forms are shown to be very useful in relating geometry, equations and surfaces, which appear in many sections. The topics of the chapters are different and separate, but joined together by common themes and ideas. Several subjects which are not easy to access are elaborated, such as Maurer-Cartan cocycles and recent results with regard to generalizations of the Weierstrass-Enneper method for generating constant mean curvature surfaces in three and higher dimensional Euclidean spaces.